Dan Kennedy's blog on media and politics • published by the Boston Phoenix from 2002 to 2005

Monday, January 10, 2005

THE N-WORD AND THE
METRO. I'll be humping on the
CBS report for the next
couple of days. But I just got word of an astounding, sickening story
about Metro International, the parent company of Boston's
Metro.

Last week the New York Times
Company bought a
49 percent share of the
local Metro for $16.5 million. The Times Company-owned
Boston Globe will partner with the Metro on content,
advertising, and promotion. Boston Herald publisher Pat
Purcell announced he will fight the deal on antitrust
grounds.

Today Rory O'Connor reports on
a
pervasive culture of racism and
sexism at Metro
International so rancid that top executives apparently think nothing
of telling foul jokes peppered with the N-word at company
get-togethers.

I'm not picking this up from some
unvetted corner of the Internet. O'Connor's article is online at
MediaChannel.org,
a respected website. I know both O'Connor and his principal source,
John Wilpers, who's a former editor of Boston's Metro and who
tells O'Connor he was an eyewitness.

O'Connor reports that Times Company
spokeswoman Catherine Mathis would not put him through to company
chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. or to Globe publisher Richard
Gilman. But I have no doubt that both men will be revolted to learn
what their new business partners have been up to. They should
respond. Immediately. [Update: And so they have. Click here.]

For Heaven's sakes, Anonymous, of COURSE it is boilerplate, a pretend exercise in offended sensibilities.

The whole point of the exercise is to do just that: pretend. Of course there is no shock or surprise. Blacks tell jokes about dopey whites (can't dance, can't satisfy their women, etc.) and whites to do the same. So what.

But by PRETENDING to be "shocked, SHOCKED!!!" like some modern day Mrs. Grundy, and by forcing the accused institution to make ritual obeisance, Leftie Media prove their power. The sillier and more transparent the outrage is, the more more obvious, more painful and more pathetic the obeisance is.

George Bush's brilliance lies in ignoring them, knowing that they will go away.

Leftie Media were "shocked, SHOCKED" that the US was doing nothing for our brown-skinned brothers after the tsunami. Bush just ignored them and they went away. Leftie Media were "shocked, SHOCKED" about the 4-year-old TexANG documents. Bush ignored them, and they went away.

Unfortunately, the NYT cannot ignore leftist bloggers, since they themselves believe in the obeisance and prostration ritual, along with the obligatory political re-education by sensitivity trainers. So they have to go along with the show. It is interesting watching the Left feed on itself, though.

About Media Log Archives

The Boston Phoenix's Media Log was launched in 2002 by the paper's then-media columnist, Dan Kennedy, who continued it until he left the paper in 2005. The Phoenix's current media columnist, Adam Reilly, is now the author of Media Log, which has since been renamed Don't Quote Me. Kennedy, an assistant professor of journalism at Northeastern University, blogs at Media Nation.